Posted on: Saturday, September 11, 2004

Hawai'i interfaith dialogue widens

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Quietly, a new interfaith movement is afoot.

More than a "lunch bunch" but not quite a policy group, this meeting of the minds of high-level faith leaders — including the Episcopal bishop and a member of the Catholic Church's College of Consultors — may be just getting off the ground, but it shows interfaith relations are going strong in Hawai'i.

For a few months, leaders from two Buddhist sects, representatives from the Muslim and Jewish faiths as well as leaders from Catholic and Protestant denominations have been gathering informally, making introductions and getting to know one another.

The effort has garnered praise from many quarters.

"I think it's a very good idea that (this kind of) interfaith dialogue develop," said the Rev. Tom Gross, diocesan administrator for the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. "It kind of, to some extent, had fallen by the wayside and I think it's good it has been rekindled."

Though Gross himself did not attend, a delegate from the diocese's College of Consultors did.

And while other formal interfaith groups meet regularly, this one stands apart in that it draws mostly from high-level leadership in the various faith organizations.

When Rabbi Avi Magid of Temple Emanu-El heard about the gathering, he said he too was heartened.

"I've been pressing for years to have that level of dialogue," he said Thursday.

The group held another meeting this week, with the numbers and ideas growing.

"It's in its embryonic stage, to establish a dialogue among all the faiths," said Jack Hoag, the spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "I think it's a very positive beginning. Personally, I hope it develops into being a more vocal focus for good in the community."

But don't expect the group to start making policies or issuing statements just yet: "We don't even have a mission statement or a name yet," said Hoag.

The beginnings may go back to when Bishop Richard Chang of the Episcopal Diocese used to have lunch with Catholic Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, who left this year to become bishop in Richmond, Va. Their regular breaking of bread would occasionally include other faith leaders, among them Don Sevetson, who was the interim minister for the United Church of Christ's Hawai'i conference at the time.

"It was a lunch bunch kind of thing," Chang said. "The conversation would be about ministry issues."

Sevetson, however, took the lunch bunch concept a step further, and suggested the creation of an interfaith leader group.

"What's happening now, with this group, is we're still trying to figure out who we are," Chang said. "But at least people are getting together, saying, 'This is fun.' Where it goes from there, nobody knows. ... Everybody has expectations, still trying to figure out what expectations are."

Sevetson recently returned to the Mainland, but people on the planning team picked up where he left off. Among them was the Rev. Ruth Peterson, the dean of the Hawai'i conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and pastor of the Joy of Christ Lutheran Church.

"In the past 4› years I've been in ministry here, I noticed there had not been a group like this meeting," she said. "It's been my hope that this meeting of judicatory leaders can serve as a model for interfaith relationships and through these relationships, we may better facilitate communication among the many faith groups here in Hawai'i."

And now may be the perfect "time for the new constellations of conversations to begin," as Bishop Chang put it: The Rev. Charles Buck is taking over his post as the new UCC conference minister; the Methodists' new district superintendent, the Rev. Dr. Woong-Min Kim, began his six-year term July 1; and the Roman Catholic bishop seat is waiting to be filled.

Leaders of other faith groups, such as Hindu, shouldn't be offended if their invitation to join hasn't shown up in the mail yet.

"I'm sure they would be invited, as we move forward," said Hoag. "I have a distinct feeling we'd like all faiths included."

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.